Music

The Summer is upon us! We’re just days away from June, and hopefully a few big Summer bangers in terms of big hit songs. There hasn’t been one which has stood out just yet, but it is the Summer of the World Cup, and that means a World Cup song.

This time round it’s done by Nicky Jam feat. Will Smith & Era Istrefi and is called Live It Up. I have only heard it once or twice, and I think it’s a grower. We’ll probably hear it quite a bit during the World Cup, I need to give it a proper listen before I make up my mind whether I like it or not.

There hasn’t been much in terms of other new music which I’ve listened to, as I have been getting in the mood for the World Cup, listening to football songs – Maybe I will do a football playlist in the run up to the World Cup 😉

Here’s my usual playlist, which isn’t the biggest, but it has a couple of big songs in there. My favourite at the moment is probably 2002 from Anne Marie, however the thing I don’t like about it is how inaccurate it is – She references lots of songs, none of which came out in 2002! 😂 She references songs like “Oops I Did It Again” (2000), “Bye Bye Bye” (2000), “99 Problems” (2003), Ride Wit Me (2000), Baby One More Time (1998). Anne Marie, you need to change the title of the song!

I have resisted writing about a certain *NSYNC song, because tomorrow…It’s gonna be May. Last month I was listening to The Lightning Seeds and Prodigy a lot, and this month I haven’t been listening to much from the 90s, and kept it current.

I should mention the sad news about Avicii which you’ll already know, it’s so sad that he’s sadly no longer with us, and was only 28. I remember writing about Wake Me Up back in 2013 and posted up the video as soon as it was released on the blog, and listening to “Seek Bromance” which he done under his Tim Berg name back in 2010 which I also featured.

Ariana Grande is back with a new single/album, and I’ve listened to it, which has been more forced than through choice. I am on the fence with the first track, I’ve heard clips non stop for over a week, but only heard the song all the way through a couple of times.

One of my favourite Dance Acts, Swedish House Mafia has reunited a few days ago, at the Ultra music festival in Miami. So it looks good for the rest of 2018, they should have new music coming soon. For March I was listening to some old tracks from the 90’s, mostly Lightning Seeds and The Prodigy have been the two which has seen the most play.

There’s been a couple of newer tracks which I’ve been listening to, Bebe Rexha and George Ezra have had some good tracks, and the Zedd and Grey track is another song which I’ve been listening to.

We’re almost into April, which is getting closer and closer to the Summer, and I do love a good Summer banger, so I hope that 2018 has another big one for us.

That would usually mean Springtime is coming, but if you look outside you’ll probably see snow. Yes, it’s the Beast From The East as the media is calling it, or a Siberian Winter being blown over from Russia. Anyway, back to the music from February…

It’s almost February so that means it’s time for my January Playlist! The very first playlist for 2018, and as usual there hasn’t been too much happening in music in January. There’s been a couple of songs I have been listening to, the most played isn’t a new song, it’s Bella y Sensual from Romeo Santos, Daddy Yankee and Nicky Jam, and was released in the Autumn of last year.

I have decided to make the playlist from scratch, so it doesn’t include any songs which I’ve previous had in the playlist. They are all new additions, including Bruno Mars, Craig David and the Eminem track with Ed Sheeran. There’s some brand new tracks too, with Dreamer from Axwell & Ingrosso, and the new Zedd track.

The BRITS are coming in a couple of weeks, and we should have some new music in the coming weeks which will hopefully be exciting.

We wait all year to hear some Christmas songs, and as soon as it’s time to play them, we seem to get sick almost immediately. I have to say that I like the Christmas songs more and more each year, maybe it’s a sign of getting old? 😀

I usually write a playlist every month and also do an end of year chart, but I thought I would combine the two in this post, so first of all here’s my playlist, which has to include some Christmas music.

Mud – Lonely This Christmas

Wizzard – I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday

Slade – Merry Xmas Everybody

Mariah Carey – All I Want For Christmas Is You

East 17 – Stay Another Day

Wham! – Last Christmas

Rita Ora – Anywhere

Big Shaq – Man’s Not Hot

Bebe Rexha – feat. Florida Georgia Line – Meant To Be

Robin Schulz F/ Hugel – I Believe I’m Fine

Fergie – Save It Till Morning

End Of Year Chart 2017

My end of year chart isn’t a chart, it’s just a playlist. I usually do a chart or rank the songs, but I don’t think there’s much point. Everyone knows the best song of the year, my favourite, Despacito by Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee (Not the terrible Bieber version). I have liked Reggaetón music since I spent the Summer in Mallorca way back in 2004, it’s never really been a big thing in the UK since most lyrics are in Spanish, but it’s had it’s moments, Gasolina by Reggaetón king Daddy Yankee in 2005, and has had other influences even when most people will be unaware (Don Omar had a track in Grand Theft Auto IV). 2017 seen the resurgence of reggaeton music to a global audience, even though it will be seen as a fad to most of the UK, for the people who like it, it’s always going to be good music. So here’s my end of year playlist, with a lot of reggaetón and latin influence in there!

Daddy Yankee & Luis Fonsi – Despacito

Shakira – Me Enamoré

Jennifer Lopez F/ Gente de Zona – Ni Tú Ni Yo

J. Balvin, Willy William – Mi Gente

Ofenbach – Be Mine

Axwell /\ Ingrosso – More Than You Know

Little Mix F/ Stormzy – Power

Bombai – Solo Si Es Contigo

Maluma – Felices Los 4

DJ Khaled F/ Rihanna & Bryson Tiller – Wild Thoughts

Carly Rae Jepson – Cut To The Feeling

Sigala & Ella Eyre – Came Here for Love

Shakira – Chantaje

Enrique Iglesias ft. Descemer Bueno, Zion & Lennox – Subeme La Radio

Camila Cabello – Crying in the Club

Camila Cabello – Havana

J-AX & Fedez F/ T-Pain – Senza Pagare

Clean Bandit F/ Zara Larsson – Symphony

The Chainsmokers & Coldplay – Something Just Like This

Little Mix F/ Machine Gun Kelly – No More Sad Songs

Zedd F/ Alessia Cara – Stay

Stormzy – Big For Your Boots

Jax Jones – You Don’t Know Me

Ed Sheeran – Castle On The Hill

Ed Sheeran – Shape Of You

And that was it for 2017! I always love the summer hits and bangers, and thank god we had one this year! 2018 is next, let’s see what it’s got in store.

So I can’t believe that it’s already December! It’s definitely time to get those Christmas tunes on, we can all listen to all the cheesy songs we have to hear at least once a year, but will probably hear them until we’re sick of ’em! 😀

For the last month there doesn’t seem to be a lot of music to talk about, apart from one thing… N.E.R.D are back! They have released a new track, Lemon, with Rihanna, where she raps in the song. I love some of the tracks N.E.R.D have done in the past, some are real bangers, the sound is just so good! I remember the first time I heard one of the tracks which was Lapdance and I loved it, the video did probably help 😉 That was back in 2001, hard to believe that it was 16 years ago!

So I have been re-living my favourite N.E.R.D tracks, so I have to include them in the playlist.

So I haven’t listened to much new music lately, I don’t think there’s been many big tracks at all. I haven’t really been looking for any music to be honest, but it seems that there’s a serious lack of anything which has made an impact. There’s no big anthem track, no catchy pop track or epic dance track which is fresh, and everything in hip hop recently seems to be really slow beats which isn’t too great.

So here’s my playlist with a few additions, including Bebe Rexha and the latest Calvin Harris track. I hope that we have some good music to listen to in the next month or so!

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Welcome to Michael 84, my blog about men’s fashion and lifestyle. I write about topics which we all love, including style, male grooming, travel, fragrance and tech, as well as the latest trends in menswear. Sharing my passion with clothing, from high street to high end brands.